ince Marbury v. Madison in 1803, it’s been “settled law” that the Supreme Court is the last arbiter of what the U.S. Constitution means. But is it really? A respectable line of argument says “no.”
One way to look at it is quite simple. The U.S. Constitution sets up three branches of government: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branches, in that order. Although none is theoretically inherently superior to any other, their order of establishment appears logical in a government of, for, and by the people.
Because we, the people, did “ordain and establish” the Constitution, the lawmaking power is vested in the people, speaking through our federal and state legislatures. (Until the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, state legislatures—not the people directly—selected U. S. Senators, but of course the people of the states elected their respective legislators.) Read more
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